Each month, our arts critics — music, book, theater, dance, television, film, and visual arts — fire off a few brief reviews.
Hyperion
Album Review: William Bolcom’s Complete Rags — Fantastically Inventive and Rigorous
This is the definitive recording of William Bolcom’s rags, complete or excerpted: a triumph for the pianist and the composer – as well as a grandly spirited, accessible, inventive journey for any who care to join them on it.
Listening During Covid, Part 9: Intriguing New Works and New-Sounding C. P. E. Bach
A varied buffet of fresh musical experiences from recent decades and from the mid-1700s.
Classical Music CD Review: Hensel & Mendelssohn String Quartets
This is an album of real spirit and vigor, a mix of the thoughtful and the exciting, all bracingly recorded.
November Short Fuses – Materia Critica
Each month, our arts critics — music, book, theater, dance, and visual arts — fire off a few brief reviews.
Classical Album Review: The Nash Ensemble — Bruch’s Chamber Music
One could hardly ask for more persuasive Bruch advocacy than what the Nash Ensemble offers here.
Classical CD Review: György Ligeti’s “Études” — Well Played and Clearly Lived In
Throughout these Études, Driver’s playing marries tonal warmth with textural precision.
Listening During Covid, Part 4: Fascinating Vocal Adventures from Different Times and Places
I may be in quarantine, but music can transport me back to the Middle Ages, or to the court of Catherine the Great of Russia, or, via Donizetti, to an imagined India.
Classical CD Reviews: Listening During COVID — Beethoven’s Jesus, Liszt’s Variations on “Norma,” and Janáček’s Animal Opera
Concert halls and opera houses remain closed — but unusual musical experiences await in this era of social isolation.
Classical CD Reviews: Beethoven Complete Piano Concerto Box Sets
It’s Beethoven’s 250th birthday year: reviews of four sets of the complete piano concertos from, respectively, Paul Lewis, Stewart Goodyear, Inon Barnatan, and Stephen Hough.